An Anne Frank travelling exhibition from New York, “Art and Propaganda in Nazi-occupied Holland”, on loan to WDHS from the Hamilton Jewish Federation, inspired the start of a student-run museum. The museum opened with donated display cases. Other collections were loaned from the Warplane Heritage Museum and the John McCrae Museum in Guelph. The museum received seed funding through the Margot Stern Strom Innovation Grant from “Facing History and Ourselves”, an organization that uses lessons of history to challenge teachers and their students to stand up to bigotry and hate.

The Gramophone Tour Project began in the Netherlands by Dr. Jeroen Pinto, an historian from the UK. The tour pays tribute to lost WWII Air Force members. To honour the lives of these pilots, Dr. Pinto arranges memorial services on Royal Canadian Air Force bases in the UK/Europe each year and during the service, plays popular 1940’s big band music from one of the three 1930’s gramophones that he purchased to bring listeners back to the time in which these pilots lived. These gramophones have played on the airfields from where pilots took off in their Lancaster and their Vickers airplanes to help liberate his country from Nazi oppression. The gramophone travelled through the United Kingdom, took a trip on the Canadian Lancaster Bomber and the museum was one of its Canadian stops.

Rob Flosman received the 2017 the Governor General’s History Award, recognizing his excellence and dedication to teaching history through the student-run museum. He received the honour on November 22 at Rideau Hall in Ottawa.

Fall 2018 exhibits commemorated the 80th anniversary since Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass. To recognize this event, the Waterdown Museum of Hope built a replica Jewish storefront for students to learn hands-on about this event that increased anti-Semitism.

In recognition of Anne Frank’s 90th birthday, the museum hosted Menno Metselaar, Project Manager at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam on May 15. Mr. Metselaar is the author of various books on the life of Anne Frank. After his talk, Mr. Metselaar signed copies of his book and visited the
museum. Our student docents escorted him around each display and he shared additional insight into Anne Frank’s life and the Anne Frank House. For the Fall 2019 exhibit, Mr. Metselaar donated virtual reality goggles of Anne Frank House.

Researchers from Japan visited the Waterdown Museum of Hope in September 2019. They learned about the museum through Rob Flosman’s Governor General’s Award. They’ve identified two problems in Japanese history education. History education is far from students’ interests and concerns and Japanese teachers need to be aware of specific classes and curricula that engage students. Their research aims to collect lessons taught by effective history teachers in overseas classrooms.

The Waterdown Museum of Hope welcomed representatives from the Hamilton Jewish Federation. The visit also included Nadia Rosa, a survivor of the Holocaust. Her story, as well as her Yellow star are on display at the museum. She was born in 1938 in Czechoslovakia and lived with her mother and maternal grandparents during the war. While hiding with a gentile family, she was betrayed by a Gestapo informant. Nadia and her family were transported to the Sered and Terezin concentration camps. During the day, Rosa would go with other children to line up for food. From 15,000 children, only 150 survived. Nadia and her mother were liberated on May 9, 1945, but many relatives perished, including her grandparents. Now 84 years old, she lives in Hamilton, and is instrumental in Holocaust education throughout Hamilton. This experiential learning experience allowed students in Mr. Flosman’s Genocide Class to further understand her experience. When asked why she continues to tell her story, she stated, “One and a half million children died and I survived. I have an obligation to speak for them.”

We look forward to the opening of the museum at the Waterdown Legion in November 2023. Artifacts will be displayed in specially built cases along the west wall of the building.

Museum members worked with Obsidian Manufacturing Ltd. for the construction of seven display cases. In early September, they were installed at the Legion.